"What I had seen, of course, was the Bokononist ritual of boko-maru, or the mingling of awareness....[I]t is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person..."—Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut

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Monday, November 5, 2012

Variation on the Word "Sleep," Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping,which may not happen.I would like to watch you,sleeping. I would like to sleepwith you, to enter

your sleep as its smooth dark waveslides over my head

and walk with you through that lucentwavering forest of bluegreen leaveswith its watery sun & three moonstowards the cave where you must descend,towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silverbranch, the small white flower, the oneword that will protect youfrom the grief at the centerof your dream, from the griefat the center. I would like to followyou up the long stairwayagain & becomethe boat that would row you backcarefully, a flamein two cupped handsto where your body liesbeside me, and you enterit as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the airthat inhabits you for a momentonly. I would like to be that unnoticed& that necessary.

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About Me

“One of the violences perpetuated by illiteracy is the suffocation of the consciousness and the expressiveness of men and women who are forbidden from reading and writing, thus limiting their capacity to write about their reading of the world so they can rethink about their original reading of it.” Paulo Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers